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The 21st International Competition for Outstanding Piano Amateurs, which attracted 100 candidates from 33 countries across the globe has just awarded first prize to Loïc Lafontaine, a French administration manager from Martinique. At the finals held on 11th April at Salle Gaveau in Paris, he played Mendelssohn’s Variations Sérieuses and the Bach-Busoni Toccata and Fugue in D minor. He also won the Audience Award and the Press Award. Second prize went to Canadian management consultancy student, Michael Cheung, with Messiaen’s Le Baiser de l’Enfant Jésus, Schumann-Liszt’s Widmung and Chopin’s 3rd Scherzo. Third prize was awarded to another Canadian, Daniel Chow, who played Ravel's Scarbo, the Strauss-Cziffra Beautiful Blue Danube and Grunfeld’s Paraphrase on Strauss' Die Fledermaus. A Japanese employee, Nobue Takudomi, and a German doctor, Peter Hiss, shared 4th prize while 6th prize went to Olivier Pairot, studying for his Masters in economics at HEC business school in Paris.
A jury presided over by the Competition’s founder, Gérard Bekerman, included Marc Laforet, Eric Heidsieck, Tristan Pfaff, François Chaplin, Marisa Bruni Tedeschi and Germaine Devèze.
Every year top-level amateurs compete in the International Competition for Outstanding Piano Amateurs sponsored by Bnpparibas Investment Partners. The finals will be broadcast on Radio Classique, France, on Thursday 29th April at 10 pm.
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